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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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EASTERN POINT LIGHT 



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THE OLD M)AN OF THE f^OUNTA 



OLD f^OTHER /\N^ 




By ADA C?* BOWLES. 



COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY FRANC A. PRATT. 



BOSTON : 
PRESS OF ANNA FLORENCE GRANT. 
1892. 



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jAVE you heard the North Wind telling, 
With its whistling and its yelling, 

In a gale. 
Of that poor New Hampshire farmer 
And his wicked fairy charmer ? — 
Such a tale ! 



|OW he lov'd and how she spurned him 
How at last to stone she turned him, 

Cold and still ; 
And she said, " Since you aspire,* 
I will raise you somewhat higher 
On this hill." 



HEN she ran away and left him 
(F"or a giant could not heft him, — 

This stone man). 
Ran away, 'till worn and footsore, 
She sat down upon the sea-shore 

At Cape Ann. 



I^UT this "Old Man of the Mountain," 
He just started a tear fountain 

From his eyes ; 
And he said, " I have a notion 
When it reaches to the ocean, 
I shall rise." 




OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN," WHITE MOUNTAIN, N. H. 



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^'HEN the bitter North Wind shifted, 
The old man, behold ! was lifted 
Wholly free; 
And he knew that his tear fountain 
Had connected his grim mountain 
With the sea. 



HEN he called the gods to aid him 
Catch the fairy who betrayed him, 

In disguise 
Of a fair and lovely woman 
Who had seemed so very human 
To his eyes. 



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rHEN he found her, then he seized her 
Round the waist, you see, he seized her 
With a roar; 
And he cried, " You '11 find me stronoer 
And my arms a little longer 
Than before." 



HEN she grew to stone just like him, 
With no power left to strike him 

Dead and cold; 
And he said, " Tho' you 're so clever. 
You shall just sit there forever 
And grow old." 



JQ beside the sea he set her 
Where the waves forever fret her 

Saucily ; 
Not a witch, and not a woman, 
But a creature quite inhuman, 
Such as he. 



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LD Mother Ann," they called her, 
ig where the s 
On the shore. 



Sitting where the sea had walled her. 



In a storm you hear her groaning 
x-A-nd her wickedness bemoaning 
O'er and o'er. 




OLD MOTHER ANN," AT EASTERN POINT, GLOUCESTER. 



'^B ^^ ^"^^ sooner was she seated 
(^)// Than the old man he retreated, 
No more free, 
And ao-ainst the same White Mountain, 
With his frozen-up tear fountain 
Sticketh he. 



OTlUT when every Christian nation 
((^Jj Shall make joyful proclamation 
" War is dead ! 
It shall rule the world no lonoer, 
Love is better far and stronger, 
Hate has fled." 



HEN the "Old Maa of the Mountain 
Will again, by his tear fountain, 

Be set free ; 
And, without a wish to harm her, 
He will once more seek his charmer 

By the sea; 




N D he '11 say, " Let 's be forgiving, 
Make our lives more worthy living 

If we can ; 
I believe 't will make us human, 
Just a man and just a woman. 

Mother Ann." 



"\]^iUT we '11 leave our shells behind us, 
Where they ever may remind us 
Of the past; 
As a sad and solemn warning 
Aorainst all hate and scornino- 
That shall last." 




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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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